1. Technical Field
The present invention pertains to the field of processing electronic transactions using a portable communication device, with particular reference, but not limited to, processing payments using a mobile phone.
2. Background Art
Portable communication devices and in particular mobile phones have been subject to theft and abuse. Attempts to protect legitimate users of portable devices have included password encryption and placing caps on mobile phone credits. Nevertheless, passwords are subject to guessing and so unauthorized access to a portable communication device can disclose sensitive information. Further, to the above, even if transactions performed on credit using a portable communication device are subject to rebate to a user who can establish unauthorized use of the device by a third party, the time involved in unwinding the transactions, in addition to emotional upset can be costly.
General problems with background art: despite the best attempts to secure portable communication devices against unauthorized access, it is a fact that theft and password tampering still present major security problems.
Specific problems with the background art:
despite the best efforts to improve password protection of portable devices, improvements in password hacking technology has meant that for each advance in encryption, new technologies are developed to bypass security measures.